In 2011 the Turkish Air Force celebrated their
100th anniversary with a range of activities throughout the year with
the highlight being the Izmir Airshow which took place in June. The Turkish
national demonstration team “Turkish Stars” are well known
for their great performances throughout Europe and in the beginning of
2011 a new solo display F-16 team was presented with the name SOLOTÜRK.

The Turkish Air Force command had chosen three pilots to
initiate the team, and in 2010 they started the training for the upcoming
centenary celebrations. Maj. Plt. Murat KELES, Cpt. Plt. Fatih BATMAZ
and Cpt. Plt. S. Yalin AHBAB formed the initial team supported by a dedicated
ground crew. During the first airshow season Maj. Plt. Murat KELES flew
the specially colored F-16C all over Europe and the team was honored at
the Royal International Air Tattoo 2011 with the highest award, the King
Hussein Memorial Sword for the Best Overall Flying Demonstration. The
demonstration F-16C block 40 aircraft received a striking silver, black
and golden color scheme and to accentuate the elegant flying performance
smokewinders were attached to the wingtips and flares were used as the
icing on the cake.

In September 2011 the SOLOTÜRK team visited the
Sanicole airshow in Belgium and the Leeuwarden openhouse in the Netherlands.
We were very honored to be able to perform some unique photoshoots of
the team above the Dutch Wadden Islands between both shows. Both the display
F-16 and the spare aircraft were flown perfectly as briefed resulting
in some very dynamic photographs. The changing clouds formed a nice background
which makes the color scheme come out even more.

As support aircraft, the special Turkish Stars C-160 Transal
aircraft followed the team between the shows. For us it was an excellent
opportunity to take some extra photographs of the team. The crew did an
great job in showing their aircraft from all sides resulting in the most
beautiful photographs ever made of the aircraft, perfect lightning, angle
and background!

Hereby we would like to thank everyone who made
these photoshoots possible, especially the flying crews for their great
piloting skills. We wish you all many great times in the coming airshow
seasons and we hope to meet you again, high in the sky! More information
about the SOLOTÜRK team can be found on their website: www.soloturk.tsk.tr